This blog will feature Finnish pop music covers and their original versions mainly from '60s and '70s.

Sunday, March 8, 2009

Race With The Devil - Kilpa-ajot perkeleen kanssa

The next five days Finnpicks is rocking! We present some covers from the rockier side of Finnish pop. And we start with a bang. Kontra has been finnpicked before (see previous entry). The group - led by legendary Mauri "Moog" Konttinen - was famous for its almost word-for-word covers of UK/US rock singles. One of those is "Kilpa-ajot perkeleen kanssa" (Race with the devil) released in 1977 on the group's "Ei kontrollia" (No control) album. The original song was done by UK band called The Gun . The title was also "Race With The Devil" and was written by the group's lead guitarist/singer Adrian Gurvitz. "Devil" was issued as a single already in 1968. A fan of this hard rocking song, Jimi Hendrix performed it at the Isle of Wight Festival in 1970, although no recordings exist. The Gun was originally billed as a "psychedelic/crossover" band, and "Race With The Devil" was just an experiment, with a mixture of orchestration and hard rock and roll. Gurvitz later teamed up with Ginger Baker to form The Baker Gurvitz Army. But perhaps Gurvitz is mostly remembered for his 1982 worldwide hit ballad "Classic".